We are having so much fun with our kids home for summer break, the occasional sibling squabble aside, but we're already thinking about back-to-school . Especially on behalf of those of you in the south who start in what, like four minute…
It may surprise readers of Cool Mom Tech , but I am pretty much a no-screens-in-the-car kind of a parent. Back when my youngest was still a toddler and four consecutive episodes of Dora meant a needed stretch of quiet. But now, unless it…
When you think of a princess book, and what the lead character wants, what springs to mind? Classically, the story would be about meeting her true love or escaping her horrible life to live in a luxe castle. Then we moved onto more moder…
It's hard not to be completely smitten with the work of Brooklyn artist Ida Pearle as we have for ages. Her cut-paper illustrations beautifully capture the whimsy and joy of childhood. We loved her alphabet book A Child's Day: An Alphabe…
Now that my kids are finally all old enough to know better than to rip out the cut-art from a pop-up book as I flip the pages for them, I've been looking around to find some new pop-up books to read to them. And wow, there are some reall…
As big-time book lovers here, we've learned that a love of reading is acquired and not something kids are necessarily born with, like the color of their eyes or their uncanny inability to sleep past 6 AM on a Saturday. So we love putting…
H i Cool Mom Picks! A ny suggestions for workbooks or activities to help prepare my child--and keep them out of my hair (ha)--for the summer between kindergarten and first grade? -Chaitali Ahhhh, summer! No school lunches to pack, no bus…
When you hear about a Neil Gaiman book for kids, you might assume it will be along the lines of Coraline or at least his Hansel & Gretel book , but nope. Gaiman is prolific (if you weren't yet aware of that) and this time he's pairing wi…
Every once in a while I come across a kids' book I love as much (or more) than my kids do. It's even more rare with board books, but the brilliantly creative BabyLit board books by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver are definitely on that …
I know that teaching my kids about personal safety is so important, but there seems to be a fine line between preparing kids for emergencies and scaring them about Things That Could Happen. Like all parents, I definitely don't want to te…
You know that time your kid turns 6 (or 5 or 7) and suddenly they start losing a whole slew of teeth in what feels like five minutes? That's what's going on in my house right now, as my daughter yanks out tooth after tooth. Seriously, th…
Mother's Day may be one of our favorite holidays for obvious reasons, but it's also obvious that not all kids have a mother living in their family. For young kids in this situation, this can be a difficult time, especially in school when…
By the time I learned how to sew, I was already a mama of two and trying to fit what little sewing ability I had acquired into what little time I had to spare. Needless to say, my output wasn't exactly abundant. If only I'd learned how t…
As you probably know, a good alphabet book is one of those must-haves in any child's library. Over the years my kids have loved learning about design in Maira Kalman's Ah Ha to Zig Zag , getting a real feel for their letters in Francesch…
My five-year-old son told me he thinks girls are the coolest because, among other things, they get to lay babies. As in, lay eggs). Yep. While I feel like I may have nailed the pro-woman mindset with him, I might not have done so well in…
So, a couple years ago I predicted that my kids would still be flipping through the book Maps by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński—and I was right. The pages are well-loved, and it's still displayed prominently on our coffee …
April is National Poetry Month, so we're having some fun adding poetry to our bedtime reading routine. Of course, any reading out loud to my kids is good for growing brains, but kids seem to have a special love for poetry--even before th…
Considering the winter we've had (and honestly, are still kind of having) in the northeast where I am, I nearly cried when I saw the crocuses coming up in my mother's garden last week. While spring is officially here , it never quite fee…
While mostly what kids look forward to in a Passover Seder is finding the matzoh, reading the four questions and stuffing their faces with as many macaroons or chocolate-covered Matzoh as possible, a few years back we discovered a clever…
Between school parties and Easter baskets from their grandparents, my kids will be coming home with chocolate bunnies and cream-filled eggs to last us till the Fourth of July. So I've been looking for some extra special Easter basket gif…
When you've got a precocious reader in the house, it can be hard to find books they haven't yet discovered and devoured. I know this because I am that reader and I spawned that reader. Luckily, we found a subscription service -- you know…
This is a sponsored message for I See! Me books If you want to cut down on sugary treats this Easter and instead grab gifts that your kids will enjoy way beyond the holiday, check out the range of the award-winning I See Me! personalized…
Sometimes the activity books for kids that we find are as much for the parents as they are for the kids, and such is the case with the Small Thyme Cooks Activity and Coloring Book . Created by Andre Huseston Mack, former French Laundry s…
Last year, just about this time, I fell in love with the Alexander Calder pop-up book by the extremely talented Patricia Geis. It introduced kids to one of my favorite childhood artists in the most perfect way. And while Matisse wasn't k…